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"Crosscurrent"


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chapter 1:
 
5000 years before the Battle of Yavin, the forces of Naga Sadow burn the largest moon of Phaegon III.  The Harbinger, captained by Saes Rrogan, former Jedi, now, recent recruit to the Sith cause stands with the Omen as the moon is peeled like a fruit.
 
Saes would have previously considered such an attack wrong, but the freedom of the Dark Side is that there is no right or wrong.  Those with power wield it as they see fit.  His second-in-command, Los Dor, is here, not only as an aide, but also a spy for Sadow, to see that he returns all the Lignan to Sadow’s forces.
 
Saes has the Harvester Droids launched.  Lignan could be mined more efficiently than this, but they do not have time.  It was Saes who had found a large deposit here on Phaegon III, charged by Naga Sadow to do so in preparation for the Battle of Kirrek.  The molecular structure can enhance one’s connection to the Dark Side.  It will be provided to every Sith and Massassi warrior.
 
In the meantime, Relin Druur, Saes’s former master, and his new padawan, Drev Hassin, engage the hyperdrive on their Interceptor in the hopes of stopping Saes.
 
41.5 years after the Battle of Yavin, Jaden Korr walks alone, hearing voices.  He hears what could be the dead Lumiya calling his name.  He hears his old friend, Jedi Lassin, who died during the Ragnos crisis.  Kam Solusar calls him.  Then Mara Jade Skywalker, also dead, tells him that what he seeks can be found on Fhost.
 
Jaden hears a cry across the Unknown Regions and sees the world before waking up.
 
The Anzati, Kell Duoro, guides his ship, Predator, to Korriban.  Before disembarking to meet with the One Sith, he feeds off of the soup of a captive Corellian’s life energy until the man dies.
 
Then he awaits the Master, Darth Krayt.
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     •    The time is about half a year or so after the defeat of Darth Caedus.
     •    Jaden Korr appeared first in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy video game as the apprentice of Kyle Katarn.  He first appeared in a novel during the Legacy of the Force series, Fury.
     •    The Ragnos crisis also took place in the video game Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.
     •    This is the first chronological mention of Darth Krayt.
 
 

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chapter 2


Relin and Drev track Saes to Phaegon III where they are assaulted by the raw energy of the Dark Side.  The destruction of the moon angers Drev.  Relin reminds him that destruction is all the Dark Side can accomplish.  They’ve got to stop whatever it is the Sith are up to here.
 
He is going to take out one of those dreadnoughts and decides that he and Saes should become reacquainted.  He dons a space suit and, as Drev pilots the interceptor up to a nearby Sith transport, jumps out into space.
 
Jaden Korr tries to ponder his vision.  He’d isolated himself from the Order, his former master, Kyle Katarn, and his comrades, since the Battle for Centerpoint Station.  He mourns that the Jedi had killed over a political issue that could have been resolved without them. 


Kyle had told him that the Force was a too, but, to Jaden, it has to be more than that.  He has his droid, R6, pull up data on Fhost.
 
Kell Douro had been under the impression that he would be meeting Krayt, not Darth Wyyrlok who reminds him that Krayt walks in dreams.  During this time, Wyyrlok acts as his voice.  After all, the Rule of Two bound the Sith.  Krayt has undone that practice.
 
Wyyrlok shows him a vision that Krayt has received.  It is a vision of some import that begins on Fhost, but nothing else is known of it.  That’s for Kell to find out and report back to Wyyrlok when he knows.  It’s possible that he will find the one he seeks during this mission.  It’s also possible that the Jedi have received the vision, too, so Kell must be prepared.
 
For now, Krayt wishes the Sith to remain in hiding.  They must use intermediaries until then.  Wyyrlok challenges Kell to ask himself why he serves the Master.
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     •    The recent civil war may have originated a political issue, but it was manipulated by the Sith Lumiya in order to put Jacen Solo in power. To say that it would have stayed a political issue without Jedi intervention is a bit too simplistic and demonstrates that Jaden Korr doesn’t know about some of the mechanisms involved.
 

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chapter 3:
 
Relin encourages Drev to trust the Force as his padawan deals with numerous Sith fighters while the master boards the Harbinger in the hopes of taking out the hyperdrive.
 
Saes paces the bridge, knowing the Jedi Infiltrator cannot be the only one out there.  When he receives a report of a guard with wounds consistent with a lightsaber, he knows there’s an intruder aboard.  Saes goes to get his mask so he can capture the Jedi and give him as a gift to Naga Sadow.
 
Drev tells Relin that the transports are returning to the ships and the dreadnoughts are moving.  He must get off Harbinger before he goes with it.  Relin would rather try to disable the hyperdrive first.
 
With all ships returned, Colonel Dor orders the Jedi Interceptor destroyed.
 
In the hyperdrive chamber, Relin plants his grenades, knowing that the radiation in here will require him to seek treatment.  He tells Drev to get out of the system.  Drev won’t because he doesn’t think the two dreadnoughts will risk firing with a jump imminent.  Relin assures him that the Harbinger is going nowhere. 

Drev would rather move close to the ship so the other will not fire and pick up his master from an escape pod.  Saes appears and notes that Relin seems to have trouble losing padawans.
 
He admits he learned much from his former master, but Relin responds that he didn’t learn incinerating a moon from him.  Saes explains that the weakness of the Jedi is their insistence on denial of self.  No one can handle that for long.  Relin counters the Jedi teach the interdependence of all life. 
 
Saes challenges him to think of the last time he felt real passion.  He knows he’s hit a nerve there, but Relin won’t budge.  Saes pulls his mask for the fight.
 
Arriving at Fhost, Jaden Korr gets permission from Farpoint Control to land his Z-95 [i]Far Wanderer[/i].
 
Predator lands, too, and Kell Douro moves off to look for his Jedi.
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chapter 4:
 
While Harbinger has only 45 seconds before the jump, Relin and Saes battle it out on the ship.  Relin criticizes his former padawan’s lightsaber technique, so Saes launches Force lightning at him. 
 
Drev calls over the comm. that he’s hit which is enough of a distraction that allows Saes to sever Relin’s left arm at the elbow.  The hyperdrive chamber explodes, knocking both of them down.  Drev tells Relin that he was wrong.  The ships seem willing to fire pre-jump, after all, but he has matters in hand.
 
Since they are nearing the jump, he has to remain in the jump field until the last minute or they will get a clear shot.  Relin insists the Harbinger isn’t going to jump.  They’d done at least something to help Kirrek.
 
Dor orders the jump stopped, but his crew cannot.  The emergency shutdown isn’t working either.  He orders the Interceptor shot down so at least they can take the Jedi with them.
 
Relin runs to the escape pod, trying to urge Drev, who is down to thrusters, to let him pick him up in the pod. Drev tells him it takes his body too long to get into a suit.  Relin insists, but Drev reminds him that they cannot let these ships get to Kirrek and he is certain Harbinger will still jump.
 
The bridge crew cannot get a lock on the Jedi Interceptor as it whirls about and heads for the bridge.
 
In the escape pod, Relin mourns the loss of his padawan who has put a huge hole in the Harbinger, causing flames to lick out as the ship moves toward the Omen.  For a moment, he thinks neither ship will arrive at Kirrek until he realizes that neither of them has stopped their jump.  His proximity to them is not safe.
 
The Omen finally starts to move out of the way, but the hyperdrive is still counting down on Harbinger.  Relin moves his escape pod as quickly as he can.  When the ship jumps, however, it takes the pod with it.
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chapter 5:
 
Khedryn Faal goes to meet Marr Idi-Shael, a Cerean,  after working on their ship Junker on Fhost.  The remains of a crashed star cruiser, coming down before the Yuuzhan Vong war, has been altered to form a kind of settlement with all manner of trade there.  The original crew was nowhere to be found, though it’s suspected they were probably Chiss.
 
The ruins remind Khedryn of the wreckage of Outbound Flight, the decades old dreadnaughts that crashed before the Clone Wars and whose survivors held a grudge against the New Republic and the Jedi.
 
In a cantina called The Hole, Khedryn is about to meet up with Marr when a human called Jaden Korr approaches him with a business proposition.  Khedryn would rather join a sabacc game first, but invites Korr to wait for him.
 
Kell Douro has waited two weeks without finding anything.  Now witnessing the human confront Khedryn, he has an inspiration.  The human is a Jedi.  His name is Jaden Korr.  When he bumps into him deliberately, Korr takes him by the shoulders and Kell senses that Korr is searching for revelation.
 
He obviously has urgent business with Khedryn Faal.  Kell has heard rumors that Junker found a valuable salvage recently, but doesn’t know what it is.  It may be a good idea to find out more.
 
Khedryn’s luck doesn’t hold during the card game.  He turns to Marr for help, but his friend reminds him that all they have is on the table.  The big gambler, Reegas, suggests he put down the coordinates of the signal he’d found recently.  Khedryn warns him the salvage might be valueless, but Reegas will take that chance.
 
When he wins, however, he’s furious to learn that Khedryn wasn’t betting exclusive rights, just the coordinates.  In a double or nothing match, Khedryn comes out ahead and Reegas accuses him of cheating.
 
The fight that ensues results in a lightsaber being activated in the bar.
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chapter 6
 
Jaden Korr rescues Khedryn and Marr who prepare to get to the Junker.  Khedryn asks Marr why he stays with him.  Marr acknowledges that Khedryn is his friend.  Jaden wonders if Marr knows he is Force-sensitive.
 
Kell knows his hunt will be for Jaden Korr, but he’s hungry now.  He feeds on Reegas before moving after the three escapees.
 
Khedryn offers to drop Korr off at his ship, but the Jedi would rather come with them.  He’s warned that, Jedi or not, Khedryn is the captain of his ship.  Faal won’t even let the astromech come aboard so Jaden tells R6 to take the ship into orbit and and send a transmission to Grand Master Skywalker if he’s not heard from in two weeks.
 
Jaden cannot help but notice Khedryn tense at the name.  Aboard Junker, he asks how the captain knows him.  Khedryn admits he was born aboard Outbound Flight and was a teenager when Luke and Mara Skywalker came to save them. 
 
Jaden tells him that Reegas was cheating which is why he won the first time, but Jaden used the Force to settle the final hand.  The Junker takes off hot.
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chapter 7:
 
Jaden admits he’s interested in the coordinates that Khedryn and Marr found because they may be of importance to him.  He offers them two thousands credits now and seven thousand once it’s confirmed the moon is what he’s after.
 
Khedryn thinks this sounds like a grand Jedi scheme and he’s had enough of those.  Jaden understands his position, but says, while the Order could be affected, this is really more of a personal mission.  He doesn’t want the salvage, he just needs to see it. 
 
Jaden explains his vision.  The Jedi don’t know he’s out here, but he does know that he needs to see this.  After haggling a bit on the price, Khedryn agrees to take him there.  Marr plays the signal, admitting he’s not been able to decrypt it. Jaden tells him he doesn’t have to.  It’s Imperial, probably an automated distress call.
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chapter 8:
 
Khedryn makes the jump, tells Jaden it will take three of them and recommends he go get some sleep.
 
Kell Douro has taken the gambled datachip from the Junker off of Reegas’s body and is plotting a course to take him to the moon.  He contacts Darth Wyyrlok and tells him he’s encountered the Jedi Jaden Korr who is heading to the place they both discussed. 
 
He explains that he wants Korr.  Wyyrlok notes that he believes the Jedi will provide the answers Kell needs.  They believe this, too, and promise that Kell can have Jaden Korr. 
 
Saes doesn’t know what happened to the Omen, but the Harbinger’s bridge is gone.  He races to the cargo bay and draws on the power of Lignan to hold his ship together, burning through the ore as he finally pulls it from hyperspace.
 
Marr wakes Jaden up after several hours.  Jaden asks how he met Khedryn.  After all, with Marr’s gifts, he could have done other things. Marr admits he probably could have.  He’d considered being a Jedi when he was young, along with many other things.  Then he decided to live life instead of thinking about it.  His mathematical skills are extraordinary, but are largely self-taught.  He and Khedryn are friends, having flown together for over six years.
 
When the ship comes out of hyperspace, Jaden can hear the pleas for help. He must get down to the moon. However, they are interrupted by a ship coming in fast.
 
Harbinger moves of its own accord while Saes gets the remaining crew up to the auxiliary bridge.  The escape pod has come with the ship. Relin spots an unfamiliar craft nearby and, knowing it will take time for Saes to get control of his own ship, decides to move the pod toward the new vessel.
 
Khedryn and Marr cannot identify the huge ship in their sights, but Jaden Korr is overcome with nausea.  He tells them to get the Junker out of here.  There are Sith out there.
 
Relin attaches his escape pod to the other ships, gathers his gear and prepares to force his way aboard.
 
Marr tells them something has docked with them.  Jaden grabs his lightsaber to stop whoever is trying to board.

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chapter 9:
 
Jaden and Khedryn get to the airlock as it explodes.  A man appears and briefly fights with Jaden before both realizes that neither is a Sith.  Relin Druur explains who is he and that they must prevent the Sith ship Harbinger from jumping to hyperspace and delivering Lignan to Naga Sadow, thus ensuring victory for Sadow at Kirrek and ushering in a Sith Empire.
 
Jaden is stunned for a moment before tell the Jedi that the Battle of Kirrek was 5000 years ago.  The jump that brought him here didn’t just send him great distances, but also through time.
 
He shows how his lightsaber and Khedryn’s blaster are more advanced and uses the Force to emphasize the truth of his words.  He tells how the galaxy has recently endured two wars to bring down Sith Lords, first of Palpatine, then of Caedus. 
 
Khedryn clarifies that they have an old Imperial distress call coming from an uncharted moon, a 5000 year old Jedi aboard and an equally ancient Sith dreadnought out there carrying evil ore.  Then he calls for Marr.
 
Saes gets to the secondary bridge and orders a search for a  Jedi when he’s told there’s an odd ship out there with one of their escape pods attached to it.  Realizing Relin got off the Harbinger and is rendezvousing with his Jedi allies, Saes orders the other ship attacked.
 
Khedryn finds out that sixteen fighters are on their way to his weaponless ship and wants to leave.  Neither Jaden nor Relin will accept that.  Khedryn reminds Relin that the Battle of Kirrek is long past and that the moon will still be there for Jaden when they come back.  It’s possible that Jaden was brought here to find Relin anyway.
 
The two Jedi insist their meeting has nothing to do with their separate missions.  Jaden offers to fly Junker into the rings of the nearby gas giant.  Relin thinks he might be able to do something with the tractor beam mounts on the ship, but warns Jaden that his pursuer is connected to him through the Force and will still follow them into the rings.
 
Saes gives orders not to allow the ship to escape, then has his astronavigation droid plot a course to their original destination.  The droid explains that they are nowhere near where they should be.  In fact, it determines that they have no only moved through space, but through time.  According to its estimates, they are about 5000 years in the future.
 
Realizing that he has no idea what the state of the galaxy is now, Saes has to think about what to do.  He has a damaged ship full of Lignan and soldiers, no data on the Jedi or the Sith in this era, and an enemy out there who is likely as lost as he is.  He knows he must kill Relin.
 
Then he will make contact with whatever Sith are left and use the Lignan to take over.  If there are no Sith, he will just remake the order.  He makes sure his officers know they are not to monitor any local subspace channels.
 
Kell watches the battle above with some interest, then works on decrypting the signal that is coming from the moon.  A female voice translates that there is extreme danger and that he should not approach.
 
Khedryn isn’t happy to learn that Relin is hoping to use the tractor beam as a defensive weapon.  He warns all them not to ruin his ship. 
 
Jaden takes the ship into the rings which prove to be hazardous for the Sith Blades that are following and, apparently, have few protections against impacts much like the Imperial fighters of today. 
 
Relin uses the tractor beam to pull small planetoids into the path of the fighters until Jaden decides to eject the cargo, let it explode and make the pursuers think they are dead.  They wait to see if they have anyone following them.  When it’s determined there’s nothing else out there, Khedryn wants the ship put down on a large body and everyone to gather in the galley for a talk.
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chapter 10:
 
Saes regrets losing Blades that he cannot replace but eliminating Relin was important enough to do it.
 
Khedryn offers what limited medical help he can provide to Relin who is suffering from the effects of radiation, has a severed forearm and broken ribs.  Jaden Korr is more concerned about other aspects of Relin’s health but the older man insists he’s fine.
 
Khedryn has decided that this situation is bigger than a mere salvage operation.  His ship doesn’t have weapons for a reason.  Jaden points out the synchronicity of their meeting and happening to arrive at the same place and time as a Sith ship from the past.
 
Khedryn won’t tolerate any of that, but Jaden wonders what Marr – as a Force-sensitive – thinks.  Even Relin can tell Marr has a connection to the Force. If he were younger, he could be trainable, but that’s probably out of the question now.
 
He’s telling them this because the Force clearly brought them all to this time and place for a reason.  Jaden has to get down to that moon.  Relin insists he get back aboard the cruiser.  If there are still Sith in this time period, the Lignan could prove very dangerous.  Relin has to destroy either the ship or the cargo and they may not get another chance if Harbinger is allowed to leave the system.
 
Jaden offers to leave the moon for now and accompany Relin, but the older Jedi tells him he will not be able to mask his presence and already has a mission from the Force.  Marr offers to go with Relin.  This is his chance to do something that is significant.  Relin warns him that he risks being affected by the Lignan, but they all know that Relin himself will be affected, too.
 
Khedryn will not allow his ship to be flown down to the moon, but will shuttle Jaden down in the Flotsam.  This extra work will cost more credits, though.  He does, however, balk when Relin wants Marr to fly Junker into the hangar of the Harbinger.  The ship’s weapon batteries must not work or they would have opened fire on Junker rather than dispatching fighters. 
 
Khedryn points out that Relin will have to get past the shields.  The older Jedi admits he has no solution to that.  Marr ignores his friend’s unspoken warning and reveals the power crystal they’ve found and have used on occasion. It will help them open a small hole in the cruiser’s shields, but will take much of their power to do so.
 
Relin decides that Marr will drop him off, leave the ship and jump out of the system until he can come back for Jaden and Khedryn.
 
Kell has watched all this, knowing the strange new ship is mistaken in believing that the freighter has been destroyed.  He has read that Jaden Korr’s destiny is to be devoured by him.  So he powers down his vessel and waits.
 
Before Jaden lets Relin leave, he warns him about the anger he feels pouring off of him.  Relin acknowledges that Saes must pay for what happened to his padawan.  Jaden reminds him that he is responsible for making sure that Marr comes back from this.  Relin points out that anger may pour off of him, but it is uncertainty that flows from Jaden Korr.  He wonders what happened to him.
 
He suspects that it was something that shattered Korr’s image of himself.  If so, it would mean that the Jedi haven’t changed in 5000 years.  He wishes he had advice to give his new friend.
 
Khedryn warns Marr to drop off the Jedi and get out of the system.  He preps the [i]Flotsam[/i], then orders everyone to the galley for a  last-minute toast.
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          •    Jaden points out that Marr is too old to be trained.  Really?  When did Luke Skywalker’s New Jedi Order stop taking adults? 
 

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chapter 11:
 
On the Flotsam, Khedryn asks if it’s not unusual that Relin asked no questions about the current state of the galaxy.  He would be curious if it were him who’d traveled into the future.  Jaden really doesn’t think it’s so odd.  After all, Relin is a dead man anyway due to the radiation.  He does assure Khedryn that Marr will get back safely though.  As a Jedi, Relin will see to it.
 
Khedryn isn’t sure he trusts the Jedi.  The growing up on Outbound Flight had that affect on him.  He wonders why the Jedi are so sure about the life and death decisions they make.  Jaden admits he isn’t sure at all.
 
Knowing there is more to this journey than just a vision, Khedryn asks Jaden what this mission is really about.  Jaden tells him that he was part of a team that infiltrated Centerpoint Station toward the end of the war with orders to leave no one behind.  Encountering resistance, he spaced a bunch of people out an airlock.  Most were combatants, some weren’t, but he didn’t have time to sort them out. 
 
Khedryn reminds him that, in war, people die and it doesn’t really matter if a blaster, a lightsaber or a vacuum does the job.  Jaden tells him that it actually does matter.  Then he wonders if Khedryn has anything to confess.  Khedryn laughs and tells him they don’t have that much time.
 
Though the radiation has poisoned his body, Relin can sense the more damaging effects of the Lignan on his soul as Junker approaches Harbinger.  He admits he’s thinking of his padawan at this moment.  Marr is certain Relin was a good teacher if Drev piloted as well as Jaden did.
 
Relin appreciates the attempt to console him, but changes the subject to Marr’s piloting, which he does without requiring the aide of the navigation computer.  Such a focused skill must mean there’s a special destiny for Marr.  The Cerean wonders if this is just such a time.
 
He suggests they make a quick hyperspace jump, iffy since they are between the moon and the planet and the gravity wells will interfere, but he thinks they can make it.  This will take time which Relin passes by allowing his anger to flame as he looks at the [i]Harbinger[/i].
 
As the Flotsam heads down to the moon, the Junker prepares to jump to hyperspace.  Marr pauses when he senses that Relin is unwell.  Relin just warns him about the Lignan.
 
Kell waits, pondering how the only other Anzati he’d encountered had thought him mad for his belief in the problems with the universal grid.  He’d fed off him for a month.  Now, it looks as if Junker is gone.  But the shuttle is there so he has Predator follow it.
 
The jump brings Junker close to the star cruiser.  Marr is naeuseated by the Lignan, so Relin tells him to imagine a walled fortress that keeps it all at bay.  The fortress is the Force;  Marr is the keep.
 
In the atmosphere, Khedryn triangulates the signal and they don environmental suits.  Jaden will only tell him he’s looking for an answer here.
 
Marr brings Junker into the star cruiser’s landing bay.
 
When Saes is told that the ship thought destroyed is back, he reaches out and feels Relin’s presence.  Then he finds the mask he’d worn when he was Relin’s padawan, a reptilian Kalee mask.

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          •    General Grievous was a Kalee.
 

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chapter 12:
 
The facility on the ground is snow covered, but there’s an entrance and life support still appears to be working.  Jaden shuts down the beacon and prepares to land.
 
Marr lands the ship and thanks Relin for what he showed him.  Relin is moved, but says nothing.  He tells the Cerean that he must go now.  Marr lets him out the hatch and watches for a time as the Jedi battles large red-skinned creatures.  There are too many of them too quickly.  Obviously, they know Junker is here.
 
Relin yells at him to seal the ship and Marr starts to do so, but he feels the pull of the Lignan and stops.  He brings up the walled fortress and reminds himself that he is the keep. 
 
Relin left behind his old self 5000 years in the past. Now he’s bent on destruction.  Something roars in the hangar bay and he realizes it’s an engine.
 
Khedryn and Jaden walk to the snowed-in facility, Jaden following the sense in the Force of the cries for help.
 
Marr rides one of the Junker’s swoops, using a blaster, while racing through the corridor of the Harbinger.
 
Jaden finds a backplate to a white stormtrooper armor piece.  They open the hatch and find evidence of a hasty retreat.  There are Thrawn-era Imperial medical corps uniforms, cards on a table, food and caf in the kitchens, unmade beds, but not a holo in sight of the residents’ friends or family members.
 
There are signs for doctors named Green, Blue, Red, Black, Brown and Gray.  Jaden realizes that the doctors used pseudonyms and so brought no personal holos to keep their identities secret.  This is becoming more uncomfortable, especially when they find stormtrooper armor with lightsaber holes in it.
 
Marr jumps from his damaged speeder to let it crash and explode.  Relin uses the Force to push the warriors back, but tells him he should go back.  He’s not a Jedi anymore, he’s only a murderer now.  Marr should take the lessons he’s learned and go back.  He should also tell Jaden that there are only uncertainties in life.  The only danger is when the search is over.
 
Kell Douro lands his ship near the shuttle and puts on a mimetic suit that disguises him  as nothing more than the blowing snow.
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chapter 13:
 
Jaden and Khedryn find the ransacked computer room, but insert some datachips to find reports from Dr. Black who relates in terms of Jedi and Sith the development of subjects that are high in midi-chlorian counts and proficient in basic and advanced Force techniques.  Grand Admiral Thrawn has been apprised of these developments.
 
Future reports show an increasingly diminished Dr. Black explaining how a subject was killed by the others, how there appears to be a telepathic link between the subjects and that many of them have been caught with lightsaber parts nearly assembled.
 
It appears that they were cloning subjects from the DNA of both Jedi and Sith, possibly to create Force users unbound by light and dark, though no one really knows how the biology works.  Thrawn could have gotten Mara’s DNA easily, though.  It’s a mystery where he could’ve gotten Kam’s or Lassin’s. 
 
Dr. Gray reports the subjects are becoming more dangerous so they’ve recommended scrapping the operation and using trihexalon gas in the lower levels.  Jaden knows the clones must have been there and decides to go see if they are still imprisoned.  Khedryn warns him of the dangers of the gas in question.
 
Jaden refuses to abandoned the clones down there.  Khedryn reminds him there could be several still alive and would outmatch Jaden even if they weren’t so dangerous.  He won’t abandoned Jaden here, but impresses upon him that they should go.  This isn’t the same as Centerpoint Station. 
 
Jaden can’t help but think what he has gotten Khedryn into and what Relin has done with Marr.  The Jedi always ask too much of those around them.  He tells Khedryn to go back to Flotsam and wait for Relin and Marr.  Khedryn doubts Relin is coming back.
 
But he agrees to go back to the ship, just not take off.
 
Marr has to fight Massassi to get to the cockpit of Junker.  When he arrives, he’s severely wounded and losing blood.  He pushes the ship out of the hangar bay, Massassi still trying to pry the ship open.  He depressurizes the ship to get an attacker off of him, then tries to repressurize when he notices a rip in his vac suit.
 
His head starts to spin from lack of air.  He sits in the pilot’s chair and hits a random button that brings up the coordinates of the distress beacon.  The Harbinger will probably shoot him down, but he’s dying anyway. 
 
Relin storms through the ship, almost willing Saes to find him, slaughtering whomever he encounters to the point where he vomits his last meal and whatever last vestiges of Jedi are left in him.  He wonders when he last felt anything.
 
Saes can feel the pain in Relin, glad to know he can kill his former master with true affection, for allowing himself to feel the sting of loss rather than mute it as the Jedi have taught him.  He makes sure he is left to deal with Relin alone.
 
In the cargo bay, Relin basks in the power of the Lignan and waits for his former padawan to arrive.

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chapter 14:
 
Jaden tells Khedryn to let him know when he reaches the ship, keeping the comm. open.  He comes across more stormtrooper armor when lightsaber marks.  Khedryn feels guilty for abandoning a comrade, but he’s gotten where he is by learning how to run.  However, if Marr really feels the Force brought them to this time and place, maybe it wasn’t just for Marr’s destiny.  When the comm. brings static, he knows he should change direction.
 
Jaden finds the bodies of the research scientists and begins to suspect that there may be no clones left here.  He hits the comlink and tells Khedryn he’s going down, getting only static.  Khedryn gets the same when he tries to tell Jaden he’s coming back.  A voice behind him makes sure he knows what Jaden was trying to tell him.
 
Kell Douro snaps his wrist, grabs Faal by the neck and starts to feed on him, then realizes he just doesn’t hunger for Khedryn Faal as he does for Jaden Korr.  He drops Faal and moves on.
 
Khedryn doesn’t know why he’s been left behind, but he has no comlink or blaster now and has to warn Jaden. 
 
Jaden gest nothing but static from his comlink.  An observation post shows a number of different vantage points, all as trashed as the rest.  A bloody show makes him wonder if the clones had gone mad as it’s said Jorus C’baoth did all that time ago.  The clones’ quarters, though, are sparse, neat and almost individualized.  There are books, not datapads, and no computers.  Obviously, the scientists wanted them to have nothing they could use for parts.  Yet, they’d managed to build lightsabers anyway.
 
The last bedroom has a message scrawled in blood : “Stop Looking at Us”.
 
He feels guilty, knowing the clones had to have gotten angry with being held here.  He moves onward, finding a group of stormtrooper helmets.  He also finds a chilling message written there: “Mother is hungry”.
 
The brush of a Force-user is on the other side of a door.  It’s like his only signature of light, but mixed with some darkness.  He tries to send out that he’s here to help, then opens the hatch.

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chapter 15:
 
On the other side, Jaden finds a clone of Kam Solusar who calls himself Alpha.  The clone explains that they require a ship to take them away from here.  Mother is hungry. 
 
They fight brutally, Jaden losing three fingers of his hand before falling into a pit of stinking gore filled with bodies.  Alpha tells him he should be honored to provide sustenance to Mother.  Jaden ends up impaling the clone through the abdomen, then climbing out of the pit, his injuries severe, to find himself facing an Anzat.
 
Relin nurtures his rage until Saes appears, delighted that his old master displays none of the calm placidity that he taught his padawan.  Relin will not fight with a Jedi weapon now that he’s no longer one of them.  Saes suggests that they are here in this time and place to create a new order.  Perhaps, Saes is here to save Relin.
 
Relin knows only his hate.  They drop their weapons and brawl physically, but Saes has had time to foment skill with his anger, while Relin has had mere days.  Saes reaches out to choke the life out of his former master.
 
Kell Douro grabs Jaden Korr, telling him that he is his salvation and begins to feed through Korr’s nostrils.  Kell sees the lines of the Jedi’s life enduring while his own break off.  He sees his purpose in them even as a blaster barrel is pushed against his temple.
 
Khedryn blasts the head off of the Anzat, looking, if possible, worse than Jaden.  On the way up, Jaden explains that he killed one clone and took his lightsaber, but there are more out there.  They are looking for a ship.  Khedryn refuses to allow his to be the one.
 
Jaden goes on to tell him that they are mad.  Khedryn wonders if they had any children after all this time.  That thought sobers Jaden.
 
Saes raises his weapon to finish off Relin who then uses the Force to rip his former padawan’s hands from his throat, pull the younger man’s lightsaber to him and plunge it into the other’s chest. 
 
Saes had thought his rage only days old, but Relin has been nuturing it for a lifetime.  The power of the Lignan surrounding him, the Dark Side fills him up.  He draws upon it, welcomes it, pulls Saes’s hand to his as he uses up the Lignan to the point where it consumes the Harbinger.
 
Marr sees the ship going down, but cannot trust himself to change direction as he head down to the moon in horrific pain.
 
Jaden and Khedryn run toward the Flotsam when a huge CloakShape appears.  Jaden senses ten presences aboard, so there must be more clones.  He yells that he will have to come after them if they leave. 
 
Then the wreckage of Harbinger comes down and the CloakShape rises up so the clones can take in the Lingnan.  Junker emerges into the atmosphere, clearly on autopilot.
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Epilogue:
 
When Marr awakens, Khedryn and Jaden are there.  They’ve treated their own wounds as best they can until they return to Fhost.  Marr confirms that Relin died with Harbinger, but they all know that he never intended to survive.
 
Jaden is still full of uncertainty, knowing his questions are still unanswered. 
 
Khedryn asks him what’s next.  Jaden will have to report to the Order and then go after the surviving clones. He and Marr are both surprised when Khedryn offers to help him.  Few know the Unknown Regions as well as they do anyway.
 
Marr tells him that Relin showed him how to use the Force.  Jaden wishes he hadn’t as it will only bring more questions.  Despite his age and narrow sensitivity, however, he does agree to check with the Council about providing some training.
 
Marr also tells him that Relin told him how doubt exists throughout all of life.  Jaden supposes it means that doubt sharpens them and shouldn’t be a mark of failure.  Marr notes, considering what he saw of the end of Relin’s life, he thinks Relin was wrong. 
 
Jaden decides he will teach Marr, but warns him he may regret having him for a teacher.
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